Mr. Gary Krupp of the Pave the Way Foundation has responded to my previous post The Assassination Duet. His comment may be viewed here.
So that our exchange will not be buried in the comments section, here is my response to Mr. Krupp.
..........................
Thank you for your comment, Mr. Krupp.
As one of Pope Pius XII's chief apologists, you are well aware that controversy over his conduct during World War Two is delaying the canonisation process.
It is disingenuous of you to suggest that your continuing stream of positive "revelations" about Pope Pius XII's wartime role do not contribute in very large measure to the cause for his canonisation.
Father Peter Gumpel S.J., the investigative judge of the cause for canonisation of Pope Pius XII, is reported to have said that persons such as yourself and your network of associates do contribute to the cause.
You are advancing the cause for canonisation of Pope Pius XII regardless of your publicly stated aim of having this Pope declared as "Righteous among the Nations ."
If Pius XII were to be declared by Yad Vashem as "Righteous as among the Nations" then it would clear the way for beatification, as you well know.
You challenged me to provide instances of misleading headlines on your website. Here is one such instance:
Before we look at the document to which this headline points, it is necessary to provide a little background for our readers.
According to David Dalin,* Dr. Isaac Herzog, the chief Rabbi of Palestine, met with Pius XII on a Sunday early in March 1946 to seek the Pope's help in returning to the Jewish fold those Jewish children then being raise in monasteries and by Christian families. The Pope promised Herzog he would look into the situation and the Chief Rabbi "expressed his profound thanks," both for the Pope's promise and for the heroic work done by Pius and the Catholic Church to rescue and shelter Jews during the war.
The headline quoted above points to an English translation of a PDF document entitled Jewish Children. The "original Vatican directive" to which Pope Pius XII gave his approval on 28 March 1946 reads as follows:
"Eventually, it will be necessary to explain that the Church must do its own research and observations in order to discern case by case, it being evident that children who were baptized cannot be entrusted to institutions that can't guarantee their Christian education.
"Besides, also those children who were not baptized and who no longer have living relatives, having been entrusted to the Church, which has taken them under its care, as long as they are not able to decide for themselves, they cannot be abandoned by the Church or delivered to parties who have no right to them.
"Things would be different if the children were requested by their relatives.
"The decision of the Eminent Fathers and the criteria here presented were referred to the Holy Father in an audience of March 28, and His Holiness deigned to provide his august approval."
Much controversy has erupted over the difference between the "original Vatican directive" and the so-called "mistranslated French document." All parties to the controversy have seemed oblivious to the "elephant in the room" - the very first words of the "original."
Instead of providing evidence that "Pius XII ordered the return of all Jewish children protected by Catholics after the war to any family members who could be found" the "original Vatican directive" actually admonishes that, if possible, no information about Jewish children should be provided to the Chief Rabbi.
This directive in fact displays astonishing arrogance, pragmatism rather than morality, a profound contempt for the sufferings of the Jewish people, and demonstrates just how untrustworthy and hollow were Pius' public promises and assurances to Chief Rabbi Herzog.
Regardless of what may, or may not, have happened later to those Jewish children in question, Vatican intent at the time was to conceal, prevaricate, and equivocate.
I have no doubt that many of the Jewish statements of praise for Pope Pius XII that you feature on your website were based on similarly dishonest promises and assurances - truly a triumph of hope over experience.
Readers may download Jewish Children from the Pave The Way Foundation Pius XII Documents page and decide for themselves whether the headline is an accurate reflection of the document's content.
Mr. Krupp, your constant attempts to demonstrate that Pope Pius XII was against Hitler and Nazism are simply red herrings which serve to conceal the Pope's real concern which was to bolster and advocate a strong Christian Germany as the only possible bulwark against godless Bolshevism. Hitler and Nazism were merely incidental elements which could be embraced or rejected at will.
As I promised my readers in The Assassination Duet, in the next post we will see if another Pave the Way Foundation document is deserving of the credibility it has been afforded - the affidavit of SS General Karl Wolff regarding Hitler's plot to kidnap the Pope.
* David G. Dalin, The Myth of Hitler's Pope: Pope Pius XII and His Secret War Against Nazi Germany, Regnery Publishing, 2005, page 113.